Noel Coward was, of course, a super patriot and in Mr. and Mrs. Edgehill he gives us a couple who are at once a joke and the very backbone of England. Eustace Edgehill (Ian Holm) is one of life's losers and with Dorrie, his wife of 18 years, he is on the verge of returning to England from one of the fictitious Samolan islands Coward created and featured in his one novel, several stories and plays. His latest non-starter had been a pineapple plantation and he and Dorrie have actually booked a passage to England when he is offered the post of British Representative on a small forgotten island in which the US is interested. He is, of course, totally unaware that he is being exploited but takes the post which he sees as his duty. Eustace and Dorrie are 'little' people and when the Americans come to build an airstrip they are dismissed as nonentities, however, when the Japanese invade Samolo it is the Americans who pull out and the Edgehills who stay simply because they have received no official instructions either way. Sentimental, okay, but moving also. Superb performances by Dench and Holm.
Review of Mr. and Mrs. Edgehill
